


her side of the story

by watchmyback



Series: sasusaku month [15]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 01:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1964511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watchmyback/pseuds/watchmyback
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>perhaps she wasn’t the only one who treasured bits of the past. // (modern AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	her side of the story

Little by little, he was telling her his story.  If she merely waited long enough, it’d tumble out in tiny hints, long hidden away in the corners of his mouth.  She treaded carefully when shadows passed across his eye, but always kept her ears open if he chose to acknowledge them.  It was a waiting game, but Sakura never minded.  It had taken time to reach this delicate balance.  Initially, it’d worried her that Sasuke kept himself so closed off, but she was beginning to realize that wanting to tell her came easier than the telling.  From the shattered pieces she’d collected of his story, she knew it would not be a pretty one.  

But she knew that Sasuke was planning to tell her.  So he was planning on keeping her around.  She would wait, as long as he was around.

Sakura had never kept her background under wraps, but dating Sasuke had made her more deliberate.  She wasn’t sure he’d want to know all her family details.  

However, the past was something that continued to be very important to Sasuke.  

“You and Naruto grew up together, right?”  He said one morning, with absolutely no preamble.  His fingers were lazily interlocked above his coffee mug, obscuring the lower half of his face while his careful eyes followed her around the room.  Black hair stuck up at unsightly angles, but Sakura thought it was adorable.  Especially when he tried so deeply to be serious.  

“Yup.  Well, not when I was really young.  It was just my parents and I then.  Naruto and I met when Aunt Tsunade took us in.”  Sakura curled and uncurled her toes, focusing on the mechanical movement before quickly glancing up at Sasuke.  

“The one who made you want to be a doctor?”  Sakura smiled into her mug at the sound of his words.  He still hadn’t touched his coffee, yet his back was straight as a board in his seat.  

“You remembered,” she teased gently, delighted when she saw the tips of his ears turn slightly red.  He quickly unfolded his hands, taking a swig of coffee to throw her off his trail.  She quickly hid her smile to save his pride.  Perhaps she wasn’t the only one who treasured bits of the past.  “Yeah, Aunt Tsu’s old friends with Naruto’s godfather.”  She looked up, careful to catch his eye as she spoke the next few words.  “Naruto used to drive her up the wall though, so she’d bring me along to distract him.  She taught me how to throw punches right after our first visit.”  Sasuke rarely showed any teeth when he smiled, but she caught the smallest glimmer of white before he caught his laughter between his lips.  

“Sounds like a pretty smart woman,” he responded, words echoing through his slowly draining mug.  Sakura looked off out the window.  

“Yeah.  She’s the best; she was basically running the biggest hospital in Konoha and she still found time to teach me how to gamble.  Not very well, but it’s the thought that counts.”  They sat quite still for a bit, the only sound the natural clink of their mugs hitting the table.

“Sakura- I’m sorry that I don’t-,” he gestured vaguely at the air, but Sakura gathered his meaning.  Sasuke would probably never be one for long winded anecdotes about his childhood.  But the way he was was more than enough.  It meant more when he watched her with a smile that lazy Sunday and, when probed endlessly, simply said, “my mother used to wear her hair like that.”  

“I understand, Sasuke,” she confessed, weaving her fingers into his.  She understood, but she now realized she wasn’t protecting him from anything by hiding her own story.  

She had an audience, and he was sure to get every little detail he wanted.


End file.
